The New House

We have been in the new house for about a month now. There are still boxes lying about and there is very little hanging on walls and we have yet to purchase a few key pieces of furniture and I will still spin around in confusion in the kitchen trying to find things and I don't know where my camera is but you know what? Most days it feels like we have lived here all along.

The home was up and running and functional in no time at all - thanks entirely to my family who came to help us move, unpack, and get settled quickly. Mom and Tyler helped me through the difficult process of making a million little decisions, which I find even more exhausting than the physical strain of unpacking. Ling and Minli helped with all the toddler wrangling; indeed they are pros. Dad has given us valuable crash courses in lawn care. We are off to a really good start.

Julia had so much fun with her cousins.

And the three of us are adapting well. Sergio has taken ownership of the lawn with amazing alacrity and skill - watering, cleaning up leaves, etc. Which is such a relief because I don't think I could handle being outside in this heat with this giant belly.

Julia loves to talk about our new house, and - though she quit for about a week - she continues to talk about our realtor. Although at this point I think she has just renamed our new house "minee new house." Even though we have explained to her that Mindy doesn't live here, she still asks "minee new house?" when we pick her up from school and head home.

During the first week we had what Sergio dubbed our "hazing" - a brown recluse spider showed up in the laundry room and we had our first false alarm on the security system. Because there must be some kind of murphy's law in effect, these are, of course, two of the things we were most frightened about when transitioning from the bug-free, super-safe condominium. I am pleased to say we survived the hazing and in some respects I'm glad we've gotten it out of the way.

Julia is learning some new words and phrases as a result of the new house such as "upstairs," "downstairs," "basement," and "daddy put water?" And she is doing so well with the stairs, learning to ascend and descend them slowly and with care. She asks for help with the sweetest, sing-song "Hold my hand!" And sometimes she just declares "big step! big step!" with each step she takes. And I resist the urge to tell her - "yes, Julia, moving into this house is a big step and we are all doing so well."